Talk:Ninjatō

This Page is Inaccurate.

The Ninja-to or Shinobigatana was not straight. This image of the straight ninja sword is a recent pop-culture image that started in the 20th century. There are no historical records to indicate the ninja used such swords. Ninja-to were swords that were curved but slightly shorter than a standard katana length but longer than a wakazashi. These katana are called ko-katana. Almost every sword in Japan was curved and a ninja would not have carried anything that would identify himself as such. Ninja would more often appear as samurai or yamabushi in order to blend in (rarely using the now cliched ninja costume unless disguise was not an option) and therefore would have carried whatever equipment that the disguise called for. Both Hayes and Hatsumi have discussed this in various books and articles. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.184.219.104 (talk) 20:57, 4 October 2012 (UTC)

Its perhaps worth noting that 'ninja-to' and 'shinobigatana' essentially just translate to "ninja sword." Also, the use of a 'reverse grip' with a sword is quite unrealistic. It positions the blade away from the opponent, making virtually every possible strike or counter require greater muscular effort and motion to execute, while placing greater strain on the side of the handle gripped with the little-finger than the side gripped far more securely with thumb-and-index. 142.59.29.202 (talk) 00:54, 9 November 2012 (UTC)

CONCURRENCE FOR THIS COMMENT

This comment is very spot on. ('To' is the English translation of sword, hence, Ninja-to means any sword a ninja uses). The article references the Hatsumi Book, History and Tradition, which was translated and ghostwritten by Stephen K Hayes in the early days of English books on the subject. Hayes has maintained that the ninja-to were both straight or curved across various publications. But in all other later books on the sword, and using multiple translators, Hatsumi says curved. Likewise, you'll have difficulty ever finding a photo of Hatsumi with a straight blade or other Ninja lineage holders (e.g. Fujita Seiko - head of Koga Ninjutsu) using a straight blade (outside of possible kabuki/theatre productions). Were I to cite these notes, I would update the actual page. Instead, I'm adding this in talk to reinforce the argument, that the straight blade sword of the ninja is a recent invention (likely stemming from theatre and the popular movie series Shinobi-No-Mono). The closest argument for straight comes from Antony Cummins, who asserts ninja grabbed broken blades from battlefields and used whatever they could find as swords. While this is a reasonable conclusion (metal was valuable and rare on the island nation), it does not support or document widespread or codified use of the straight blade. Nor has Mr. Cummins provided suitable documentation to support his theories. Of course, should any of this change, Wikipedia welcomes updates per the documentation standards.-- Greenshinobi (talk) 17:27, 24 November 2020 (UTC)

Shinobigatana

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